Want to Explore the Deep Sea? The Secret Is Sound

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Want to Explore the Deep Sea? The Secret Is Sound

No place on this planet is more inhospitable to human life than the deep oceans. Even if you could breathe water, the cold and the crushing pressure would surely extinguish your flame. But that doesn't mean science can just ignore the depths. In fact, understanding the deep sea is more critical than ever before.

To that end, a team of scientists just mapped over 4,000 square miles of seafloor in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, off the Hawaiian Islands, in stunning detail. The work aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor (yes, like in The NeverEnding Story) reveals not just geological secrets, but clues as to where life might be hiding.

To build such a detailed image of the seafloor, the team didn't use any old sonar, but something called multibeam sonar, which fires out lots of pings in a sort of ribbon of sound. "The analogy is mowing the lawn," says oceanographer and lead scientist John Smith of the University of Hawaii. "You're actually collecting over 400 depth points per single ping, so you've got these multiple beams of sound." That means super high resolution images—on the scale of mere meters, compared to hundreds of meters with old sonar tech—of towering seamounts that could be home to unique deep-sea life.

Safeguarding life may not be of particular concern for an established marine preserve like this one. But the technique could be a life-saver elsewhere. "Seafloor mining is starting to gain traction again," says Smith. "We're trying to keep up with that, and actually determine likely places that these communities like to live and what's down there before people start going and mining them in other locations that aren't protected."

That kind of mining will center on deep-sea vents, which the Schmidt Ocean Institute has been capturing in glorious virtual reality. Not only can you explore an underwater volcano, but so can researchers around the world, without having to climb aboard the research vessel. It's the high-tech, real-time science of tomorrow.

Oh, and it's beautiful as well. So do your eyeballs a favor and check out the video above.